Open mic

An open mic (or open mike) (derived from the expression "open microphone") is a live show at a coffeehouse, nightclub, comedy club, strip club, institution or pub at which audience members who are amateur or professional may perform on stage, often for the first time, or to promote an upcoming performance.[1] Typically, as the name suggests, the performer is provided with a microphone which is plugged into a PA system, to make the individual's performance loud enough for the audience to hear. Often the performers sign up in advance for a time slot with the host or master of ceremonies, typically an experienced performer or the venue manager or owner. The master of ceremonies may screen potential candidates for suitability for the venue and give individuals a time to perform in the show. These events are focused on performance arts like poetry and spoken word, music (often singer-songwriters who accompany themselves on guitar), and comedy. Less commonly, small groups, such as a small rock band duo/trio or a comedy duo may appear. Group performances are uncommon, because of the space and the logistics of loading in and soundchecking such a group. In strip club terms, amateur night is a contest for everyday women and men who compete for a cash prize by taking their clothes off just like professional strippers.

This article is about the type of live show. For the comedy series, see Open Mike with Mike Bullard. For type of gaffe, see microphone gaffe.

A poet reads her work at the Little Grill open mic in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Open mic nights may have no cover charge, or a very low cover charge, although the venue may have a gratuity jar, "pass the hat" for donations or hold a raffle with various prizes. Venues that have no charge make revenue from selling alcoholic beverages and food. The performers are not typically paid, although the venue may recompense the performers with a beverage or meal. The host or MC, as an experienced professional, is usually paid for their services. The host or MC may perform at some point during the evening, either a full set or to fill in when an amateur member is not available for their slot. Open mic events are somewhat related to jam sessions, in that in both cases amateur performers are given the opportunity to sing or play instruments. The difference is that jam sessions often involve musical ensembles, possibly even a house band or rhythm section and a jam session may involve the participation of professional performers, especially at a high-end jazz club.

Music
A musician performs open mic at No Name Bar in Sausalito, California.

These shows provide an opportunity for emerging musicians to gain experience performing to a live audience without having to go through the process of getting normal music gigs, which is very difficult to do without experience or a demo recording. Open mics provide an outlet for singer-songwriters. Prior to their popularity, the only outlet generally were folk clubs, which were not always friendly towards creators of new music, preferring traditional, well-known music. They also suggested that music performed by acoustic musicians or solo artists in this manner would necessarily be folk music, a misconception that still commonly exists today. Some organizers have chosen the title "acoustic night" or "acoustic club" in an attempt to indicate an event run broadly on the lines of a folk club, but with a much wider range of musical styles.

Open mic events are most commonly held in the middle of the week or at the very end of the weekend when footfall through venues is low. They rarely occur on the hallowed Friday and Saturday night time slots when venues are busy with weekend revellers and any live performance is usually specifically booked, professional artists. The most common night for a UK open mic event is Thursday, followed by Wednesday.[2]

In the United Kingdom, the largest ongoing open mic-styled music contest is Open Mic UK, which regularly attracts 10,000 participants of all genres. The grand prize for the contest is an investment up to £30,000. The size of the event has necessitated that all participants sign up for performance slots beforehand, instead of simply walking onstage.[3][4]

Open mic blue jam, 2015

A popular open mic arrangement in the United States is the "Blues Night". In this format a bar or club will dedicate a particular night, usually in the middle of the week, as being "open mic blues night". The establishment may supply a house band, typically guitar, bass and drums, sometimes a keyboard. Singers, guitarists, harmonica performers who wish to play sign up, usually with the master-of-ceremonies or host. This person is tasked with screening the performers, choosing and ordering, and getting the performers on and off stage in a polite manner.

Since the songs chosen need to be simple enough so that a band of musicians who have not played together can perform them without practice, blues standards are used. Songs might be announced as a "12-bar fast shuffle in C" or "slow 12-bar blues in F", or similar phrases, that should be familiar to all concerned. Lead singers, keyboards, horn players, (usually saxophones) and various percussion instruments are common additions.[5]

Comedy
Main article: Stand-up comedy

Comedy open-mic nights can be held at established comedy clubs, but they are more commonly held at other venues with or without a stage, often the upstairs or back room of a pub or bar, bookstores, colleges, rock clubs, and coffeehouses.[6][7][8][9] Less commonly, they are also held at venues such as strip clubs[10] and comic book shops.[11][12] Comedy clubs may be the only open mic establishments that have a backstage area for performers waiting to go on stage (where no audience members are present); this is called a greenroom.[13]

Open mic nights give emerging comedians the opportunity to practice stand-up comedy, something they cannot do without a live audience.[24] The audience for a typical comedy open mic is other comedians.[25][26] Those underage must have their parents attend clubs with them.[27] More experienced comedians may use open mics as an unpaid opportunity to work out newer material or a new character.[28][29] Open-mic comedy nights are most widespread in larger English-speaking cities with a well-established stand-up comedy scene (esp. London and New York City). Stand-ups also use open mics for networking to find both paid and unpaid work opportunities, for developing social groups, or as a form of self-medication.[30][31][32]

Comedy format

The room is where a comedy performance takes place; comedians are said to gauge the audience by their ability to read the room.[33][34] Stand-up comedy performances have a designated stage area and use microphone with amplification as an industry standard.[35][13][36] Open mics have no minimum requirements to perform.[37][38][39] The average format is "show and go."[40] In a typical open mic night, acts will get three to seven minutes of stage time.[48] The routine of a five-minute slot requires approximately three minutes of material.[49][50][51] All stand-up performed must be an original creation.[52][53]

The host (or MC, emcee, compere, warm-up act) of a stand-up comedy open mic tries to maintain an equilibrium of mood.[54] Hosts will try to seat audience members close together, near the designated front stage area, because that seems to maximize the audience's feelings of enjoyment and may lead to increased laughter.[60] The open mic host introduces each act (by reciting the name that was placed on the sign-up list) and asks the audience to give the performer an introductory round of applause.[61][62][63] Performing first on an open mic roster puts the comic at a disadvantage, due to the audience being "cold," and is considered the most challenging spot to perform.[64][65]

Stand-ups use second person to address the audience.[66] In 2011, author Rob Durham wrote that an open mic should be no longer than ninety minutes or be more than fifteen acts.[67] A comedy open mic will not normally exceed 30 people.[68] It is common practice for stand-ups to record their sets for later review and rehearsal.[69][70] The collective feedback from different audiences has a significant impact on how a stand-up routine is shaped.[74]

The light

A comedian will get "the light" (often a cellular phone flashlight[75]) one minute before their set is over, to finish up the joke they're on.[76][77] Those who ignore the light might get banned from that mic.[77][78][79]

Other types of comedy open mics

Other types include booked shows and bringer shows. Booked shows have a normal format, but performers reserve spots (one week to month) in advance. Bringer shows are presented in a showcase format, with each performer mandatorily bringing 5–15 people (with a cover charge and a two-drink minimum, per person) and is seen as exploitative.[80]

Poetry, rapping, and spoken word
See also: Rapping

Poetry and spoken word open mics feature a host, who is normally a poet or spoken word artist, poets and spoken word artists, and audience members. Sometimes open mic nights have featured readers, or are part of a writing workshop, but generally a sign-up sheet is available for anyone interested in participating. Each participant is then called to come to the microphone and read a selection or two.[81] Writers may attend an open mic to try out a new piece for an audience or to find out more about the local writing community. Others attend poetry open mics just to listen.[81] Poetry/spoken word open mics range from laid back, serene settings to lively sessions where readers and/or performers compete for audience applause. They are usually held in libraries, coffee houses, cafes, bookstores and bars.

Each poet or spoken word artist is often asked to keep their performances to a minimum/specified time slot, giving each performer enough time to share some of their work with the audience. The host or MC acts as a "gatekeeper", determining which performers are suitable for the event. If a performer goes over their time limit, the host diplomatically thanks the performer for their contribution and asks them to yield the stage for the next performer.

Strip club
See also: Stripper

In most strip clubs, amateur night is a contest held by the clubs themselves where women and men compete for cash by stripping just like their stripper counterparts.[82][83]

Rarer niche variations
See also: Disc jockey

The terms "open deck" (where deck refers to the kind of turntable used by a DJ) and "open reel" (where reel refers to a 35 mm film reel) are used for more niche open mic events where keen amateurs can meet to exhibit and critique their skills/artform. A decrease in the cost of consumer video technology combined with the powerful editing capabilities of modern PCs has caused an increase in the popularity of DJing and amateur filmmaking, but these types of events are still very rare.

See also

References
  1. Zimmer, Ben (29 July 2010). "How Should 'Microphone' be Abbreviated?". The New York Times Magazine. New York: The New York Times Company. Retrieved 4 April 2020. Mike came first, documented from the early days of radio. In the June 1923 issue of 'The Wireless Age,' a photo caption of Samuel L. Rothafel…reads, ‘When you hear Roxy [Rothafel] talk about 'Mike' he means the microphone.’ This suggests the abbreviation arose as a kind of nickname, playfully anthropomorphizing the microphone as Mike. But by 1926, when the pioneering broadcaster Graham McNamee published his book ‘You're on the Air,’ mike appeared in lowercase, not as a name…Mic didn't begin appearing in written works for another few decades, first recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary in Al Berkman's 1961 ‘Singers' Glossary of Show Business Jargon.’ Berkman offered both mike and mic as possible clippings of microphone. Since then, mic has grown in popularity among those who work with recording equipment.
  2. "Open Mic Finder Statistics". Open Mic Finder Statistics. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
  3. "2010 Winners". Open Mic UK. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
  4. Almroth-Wright, Indy (6 December 2008). "Twleve year-old 'Birdy' wins UK talent contest". BBC (Hampshire). Retrieved 15 April 2011.
  5. rayray. "Phoenix Blues Jams". www.rayrayblues.com.
  6. Lindfors, Antti (6 May 2019). "Cultivating Participation and the Varieties of Reflexivity in Stand-Up Comedy". University of Turku, Finland. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. 29 (3): 278. doi:10.1111/jola.12223. Retrieved 26 December 2020. in Helsinki...so-called open mic clubs, which refers to organized events (usually in bars and pubs) where both established and beginning comics can try out new material as well as develop their standard routines through relatively short sets ranging from five to twenty minutes, in an environment (with live audience) specifically encouraging and framed for work-in-progress.
  7. Carter, Judy (2001). The Comedy Bible: From Stand-up to Sitcom—The Comedy Writer’s Ultimate How-To Guide. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. pp. 66–67. ISBN 978-0-7432-0125-4.
  8. Bromley, Patrick (6 June 2018). "How to Break Into Stand-Up Comedy". ThoughtCo. Potdash. Retrieved 22 March 2019. [Open mics] could be held anywhere, but are often found at bars, rock clubs, and coffee houses.
  9. Durham, Rob (2011). Don’t Wear Shorts on Stage: the stand-up guide to comedy. Middletown, DE. p. 16. ISBN 9781468004847. Each comedy club or bar has its own system for signing up for [an] open mic.
  10. Isador, Graham (2 May 2018). "Comedians Tell Us the Most Epic Fails They've Seen at Open Mics". VICE. VICE MEDIA LLC. Retrieved 18 February 2019. The worst open mic I ever attended was at Zanzibar, a strip club in downtown Toronto.
  11. Master, Julian (2 April 2016). "An Aspiring Stand-Up Comic Shoots Empty Open Mics Across NYC". VICE. VICE MEDIA LLC. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  12. Quirk, Sophie (November 2011). "Containing the Audience: The 'Room' in Stand-Up Comedy" (PDF). University of Kent, UK. Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies. 8 (2): 232. Retrieved 27 December 2020. The more improvised spaces still tend to have high information rates [i.e., distracting stimuli that are not a part of the performance]
  13. Goffman, Erving (1980) [1959]. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books: A Division of Random House, Inc. pp. 113, 119. ISBN 978-0-385-094023. In general...the back region will be the place where the performer can reliably expect that no member of the audience will intrude...back region tends to be defined as...all places out of range of 'live' microphones.
  14. Quirk, Sophie (November 2011). "Containing the Audience: The 'Room' in Stand-Up Comedy" (PDF). University of Kent, UK. Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies. 8 (2): 220. Retrieved 4 January 2021. It is the audience's cooperation which allows the act to succeed and they retain the right to undermine the interaction by withdrawing that cooperation
  15. Smith, Daniel R. (2018). "Part I: Analytical[:] 2 The Professionalisation of Stand-Up Comedy: Coda". COMEDY AND CRITIQUE: Stand-up comedy and the professional Ethos of laughter. Bristol Shorts Research. UK: Bristol University Press. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-5292-0015-7. Stand-up is the art of self relating to self in the presence of others.
  16. Smith, Daniel R. (2018). "Part II: Synthetic[:] 3 Representation: Stand-up: representing whom?". COMEDY AND CRITIQUE: Stand-up comedy and the professional Ethos of laughter. Bristol Shorts Research. UK: Bristol University Press. p. 79. ISBN 978-1-5292-0015-7. [S]tand-up represents a three part relation in the aesthetic completion of the comedic exchange: attempted joke, laughter, confirmed joke.
  17. Lindfors, Antti (6 May 2019). "Cultivating Participation and the Varieties of Reflexivity in Stand-Up Comedy". University of Turku, Finland. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. 29 (3): 279. doi:10.1111/jola.12223. Retrieved 26 December 2020. First, stand-up is centered around public self-presentation and -reflection through verbal and nonverbal communication, that can be preliminarily described as a subjectifying mode of footing...Second, stand-up is a [sic] groupendeavor dependent on performer's abilities to reflexively accommodate assumptions of one's audience, or what comics metapragmatically designate as 'reading the room' and 'working the audience.'
  18. Bromley, Patrick (13 April 2018). "Breaking Into Stand-Up: 10 Tips for Beginner Comedians". ThoughtCo. Potdash. Retrieved 22 March 2019. It's a true 'learn-by-doing' art form, and you won't know what works (and what doesn't) until you've gotten on stage in front of an audience.
  19. Lagatta, Eric (21 March 2019). "Budding, established comedians hone craft at open-mic nights". The Columbus Dispatch. GateHouse Media, LLC. Retrieved 25 March 2019. Most comedians see open-mic nights as a chance to test new material or refine their stage presence.
  20. Naessens, Edward David (2020). "Busting the Sad Clown Myth: From Cliché to Comic Stage Persona". In Oppliger, Patrice A.; Shouse, Eric (eds.). The Dark Side of Stand-up Comedy. United Kingdom: Springer Nature Switzerland AG: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 228. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-37214-9_11. ISBN 978-3-030-37213-2. comedians learn how and who to be onstage in significant part by watching other comedians and attending to the responses of audiences.
  21. Brodie, Ian (2008). "Stand-up Comedy as a Genre of Intimacy". Ethnologies. Cape Breton University. 30 (2): 161. doi:10.7202/019950ar. Retrieved 15 September 2020. Pauses, rhetorical questions, digressions, diversions, distractions, and long descriptive passages all are opportunities for the audience to react in an unanticipated manner and to shift (or pull) focus away from the performer.
  22. Marchese, David (23 September 2016). "Norm Macdonald Unloads on Modern Comedy, SNL, Fallon's Critics, Hillary, and Trump". Vulture: Devouring Culture. Quote by Norm Macdonald. Retrieved 27 December 2020. On TV, every single joke kills. That's not what happens with stand-up. You have to earn every laugh. Another thing is that there's no room for interpretation in stand-up...with stand-up, it's all about getting that noise — getting that laugh. And it has to come for everyone at the same time. Everyone has to think the same thing at the same time.
  23. Brodie, Ian (2014). "Stand-Up Comedy and a Folkloristic Approach". A Vulgar Art: A New Approach to Stand-up Comedy. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-62846-182-4. At its core...is audience engagement: laughter is both the ends (the validation by the live audience of the comedian being found funny) and the means (data for the subsequent listener to consider in judging whether the comedian could be found funny).
  24. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]
  25. Freeman, Zach (30 May 2019). "10 reasons why Cole's is the best comedy open mic in Chicago". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 12 April 2020. If you’ve ever been to a typical open mic, you’re probably a comedian yourself. In other words, the audiences can be sparse, and they’re mostly waiting for their turn at the microphone.
  26. Fulford, Larry (2020). "The Complete and Utter Loss of Time". In Oppliger, Patrice A.; Shouse, Eric (eds.). The Dark Side of Stand-up Comedy. United Kingdom: Springer Nature Switzerland AG: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 306–307. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-37214-9_16. ISBN 978-3-030-37213-2. Sometimes bouncing from open mic to open mic, hitting two or three in a single night…comics who take the craft seriously are out [performing stand-up] almost every night
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  28. Oswalt, Patton (14 June 2014). "A Closed Letter to Myself About Thievery, Heckling and Rape Jokes". Patton Oswalt. Patton Oswalt. Retrieved 3 February 2019. Open mikes are where, as a comedian, you’re supposed to be allowed to fuck up.
  29. Roberts, Rebecca Emlinger (2000). Tim Allen. "Standup Comedy and the Prerogative of Art". The Massachusetts Review. The Massachusetts Review, Inc. 41 (2): 158, 159. JSTOR 25091646. No laughter? Out then. Tim [Allen]’s willingness to change his act to suit his audience…The difference between Tim’s censoring of material and a poet’s censoring is elusive. Tim’s goal is to make money, that’s one of his desires, but not his primary motivating desire. His drive as a comedian is to make people laugh.
  30. Oliar, Dotan; Sprigman, Christopher (2008). "There's No Free Laugh (Anymore): The Emergence of Intellectual Property Norms and the Transformation of Stand-Up Comedy". Virginia Law Review. Virginia Law Review. 94 (8): 1816. JSTOR 25470605. Retrieved 16 September 2020. Connections to more established comedians are often helpful in finding work, and a good name and goodwill among fellow comedians is also a source of job opportunities.
  31. Bernstein, Mike (Director); Chris Gethard; Neal Brennan; Anna Akana; Sarah Silverman; Baron Vaughn (10 October 2019). Laughing Matters [Comedians Tackling Depression & Anxiety Makes Us Feel Seen Documentary] (Motion Picture). SoulPancake in association with Funny Or Die and Alpen Pictures. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
  32. Goffman, Erving (1980) [1959]. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books: A Division of Random House, Inc. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-385-094023. When an individual or performer plays the same part to the same audience on different occasions, a social relationship is likely to arise.
  33. Quirk, Sophie (November 2011). "Containing the Audience: The 'Room' in Stand-Up Comedy" (PDF). University of Kent, UK. Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies. 8 (2): 220. Retrieved 27 December 2020. The term 'room' means more than just the physical space in which the performance takes place; it is the term used to summarise a combination of factors which include the nature of the space, the way that space is set up, the character of the audience and more.
  34. Lindfors, Antti (6 May 2019). "Cultivating Participation and the Varieties of Reflexivity in Stand-Up Comedy". University of Turku, Finland. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. 29 (3): 283. doi:10.1111/jola.12223. Retrieved 27 December 2020. In the heat of real-time performance...comics can 'read the room' through jokes that are optimal for gauging their interlocutors' intellectual, moral, emotional, or other boundaries and preferences, e.g., through lowbrow, strategically ambiguous, or perhaps seemingly offensive bits.
  35. Brodie, Ian (2008). "Stand-up Comedy as a Genre of Intimacy". Ethnologies. Cape Breton University. 30 (2): 156–157. doi:10.7202/019950ar. Retrieved 15 September 2020. [S]tand-up comedy...cannot exist without technological advances...what distinguishes it as a whole from other forms of verbal comedy, and where one can deduce its origins, is the advanced use of the microphone...antecedents and forebears are suggested ranging from the court jester to Mark Twain and Will Rogers. Such suggestions of ancestry are not without merits, but as a form or, more precisely, as an emic genre with an attendant set of expectations, including the dialogic properties...stand-up comedy, contemporary or otherwise, does not exist without amplification.
  36. Brodie, Ian (2014). "Stand-Up on Stage". A Vulgar Art: A New Approach to Stand-up Comedy. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. p. 49. ISBN 978-1-62846-182-4. Staging for the stand-up comedy performance is minimal. Typically, there is a stool, a microphone stand, and a neutral backdrop. The backdrop is either a blank wall (frequently brick) or a curtain.
  37. Seizer, Susan (2011). "On the Uses of Obscenity in Live Stand-Up Comedy". Anthropological Quarterly. The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research. 84 (1): 215–216. JSTOR 41237487. Another key feature of the minimal set up of stand-up is that it allows virtually anyone to do it. You don’t need 'gear:'...neither do you need 'proof': a license, a training certificate, an academic degree. This democratic character allows live regional stand-up to showcase homegrown and working-class talent.
  38. Mintz, Lawrence E. (Spring 1985). "Special Issue: American Humor" (PDF). American Quarterly. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 37 (1): 71–72. doi:10.2307/2712763. JSTOR 2712763. Retrieved 2 August 2020. A strict, limiting definition of standup comedy would describe an encounter between a single, standing performer behaving comically and/or saying funny things directly to an audience, unsupported by very much in the way of costume, prop, setting, or dramatic vehicle. Yet standup comedy's roots are...entwined with rites, rituals, and dramatic experiences that are richer, more complex than this simple definition can embrace. We must...include seated storytellers, comic characterizations that employ costume and prop, team acts[,]...manifestations of standup comedy routines...such as skits, improvisational situations, and films...and television sitcoms...however our definition should stress relative directness of artist/audience communication and the proportional importance of comic behavior and comic dialogue versus the development of plot and situation
  39. Naessens, Edward David (2020). "Busting the Sad Clown Myth: From Cliché to Comic Stage Persona". In Oppliger, Patrice A.; Shouse, Eric (eds.). The Dark Side of Stand-up Comedy. United Kingdom: Springer Nature Switzerland AG: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 229. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-37214-9_11. ISBN 978-3-030-37213-2. Novice stand-up comedians must introduce themselves, break the ice, and quickly provide background to audiences of strangers.
  40. Martin, Sarah. "Comedy Open Mic Formats & Etiquette". Vocal. Jerrick Ventures LLC. Retrieved 4 April 2020. Show and Go/Show Up…[t]his is most common type of open mic...[a]ll you have to do is show up...[and p]ut your name on the list
  41. Bunce, Alan (13 January 1989). "What's So Funny, America?". The Christian Science Monitor. Mort Sahl. Retrieved 10 September 2019. Today kids come on[stage at open mics] for five minutes each and curse because of a poverty of language or because they've seen too many R-rated movies.
  42. "PDX Comedy Blog". PDX Comedy Blog. Portland, OR, USA. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  43. Durham, Rob (2011). Don’t Wear Shorts on Stage: the stand-up guide to comedy. Middletown, DE. p. 21. ISBN 9781468004847. [Y]ou'll get four or five minutes to perform.
  44. Ball, Joseph (25 July 2018). "I Did Stand-Up Comedy For The First Time And Didn't Become A Punchline". Indianapolis Monthly. Indianapolis Monthly. Retrieved 25 March 2019. Those three minutes felt like 30, in a good way
  45. Luschei, Abby (25 July 2018). "Advice from five Salem comedians on getting started doing stand-up". statesman journal. Part of the USA Today Network. Retrieved 25 March 2019. Each comic gets five minutes
  46. Neill, Geoffrey (22 December 2015). Hitting Your Funny Bone: Writing Stand-up Comedy, and Other Things That Make You Swear. San Bernardino, CA. p. Chapter 6. ISBN 9781515180661. (It’s usually three to four minutes).
  47. Brodie, Ian (2014). "Stand-Up Comedy Broadcasts". A Vulgar Art: A New Approach to Stand-up Comedy. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. p. 168. ISBN 978-1-62846-182-4. Open-mike nights at comedy clubs typically limit performances to five minutes.
  48. [41][42][43][44][45][46][47]
  49. Durham, Rob (2011). Don’t Wear Shorts on Stage: the stand-up guide to comedy. Middletown, DE. pp. 9–10. ISBN 9781468004847. You need just three minutes of material...enough time to perform several jokes, get a few laughs, and then get off [the] stage.
  50. Bienenstock, David (20 November 2017). "Bob Saget Helped Me Prepare for My Stand-Up Debut" (Interview). VICE. Bob Saget. VICE MEDIA LLC. Retrieved 18 February 2019. It’s really just three to five minutes that you need to write and then hone
  51. Goffman, Erving (1980) [1959]. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books: A Division of Random House, Inc. p. 16. ISBN 978-0-385-094023. The pre-established pattern of action which is unfolded during a performance and which may be presented or played through on other occasions may be called a 'part' or 'routine.'
  52. Oliar, Dotan; Sprigman, Christopher (2008). "There's No Free Laugh (Anymore): The Emergence of Intellectual Property Norms and the Transformation of Stand-Up Comedy". Virginia Law Review. Virginia Law Review. 94 (8): 1830. JSTOR 25470605. Retrieved 16 September 2020. [T]he spirit of modern stand-up comedy…is focused on originality.
  53. Brodie, Ian (2014). A Vulgar Art: A New Approach to Stand-up Comedy. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-62846-182-4. Stand-up comedy, being a contemporary, popular genre, is a genre of novelty, so one does not learn the canon so much as learn from it, locating oneself within a tradition not simply to continue it but to develop and add to it.
  54. Keisalo, Marianna (2018). "The invention of gender in stand-up comedy: transgression and digression". Social Anthropology. 26 (4): 555–556. doi:10.1111/1469-8676.12515. Retrieved 1 February 2021. [They] act as Masters of Ceremony, the club hosts who warm up the audience and introduce each comedian. This is a challenging job; the MC is responsible for maintaining the mood of the audience and adjusting it if necessary after each performance.
  55. Thomas, James M. (2015). "Laugh through it: Assembling difference in an American stand-up comedy club". Ethnography. Sage Publications, Ltd. 16 (2): 174. JSTOR 26359086. Tightly arranged seating within the comedy room created physical discomfort for audience members…Yet audience members often talked about how much they enjoyed 'the feeling of a full house'...Conversely, when shows were not sold out and audience members had more room to spread out among empty tables and chairs, audience members were less likely to relate their experiences as one of entertainment or enjoyment.
  56. Lindfors, Antti (6 May 2019). "Cultivating Participation and the Varieties of Reflexivity in Stand-Up Comedy". University of Turku, Finland. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. 29 (3): 277. doi:10.1111/jola.12223. Retrieved 26 December 2020. Corroborating the communal reputation of the genre, stand-up trades on interpersonal resonance or what is called 'involvement' in sociolinguistics (Tannen 2007), where audience will (ideally) 'coauthor' the speech act by ritualized collective laughter (Duranti 1986).
  57. Quirk, Sophie (November 2011). "Containing the Audience: The 'Room' in Stand-Up Comedy" (PDF). Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies. University of Kent, UK. 8 (2): 228. Retrieved 27 December 2020. To produce laughter, an audience needs not only energy but also confidence. To laugh is pleasant, but can also be risky; to be caught laughing heartily when other audience members are silent could be embarrassing. Bergson describes the importance of camaraderie in laughter...It is therefore important that, as Brook intimates, the energy that causes laughter flows freely and easily between people.
  58. Lockyer, Sharon; Myers, Lynn (November 2011). "'It's About Expecting the Unexpected': Live Stand-up Comedy from the Audiences' Perspective" (PDF). Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies. Brunel University. 8 (2): 177. Retrieved 29 December 2020. Respondents expressed that they enjoy the limited [spatial] distance between the audience and the stand-up comedian...Such explanations support Bennett's observation that the 'lessening of distance leads to fuller engagement with the spectator' (1997: 15). Although this reduced distance is important in all live performances, closeness and intimacy is especially important in standup comedy.
  59. Greene, Grace F. (2012). "Rhetoric in Comedy: How Comedians Use Persuasion and How Society Uses Comedians". The Corinthian: The Journal of Student Research at Georgia College. 13 (11): 138. Retrieved 26 January 2021. [E]xpectancy violations theory is not particular to humor; it is a contemporary communication theory that can be applied to rhetorical situations. Expectancy violations theory is heavily based on the studies of personal space and proxemics, or the study of people’s use of space (Griffin, 2009). The key to the expectancy violations theory is the argument that when our expectations are violated, we have the choice of responding negatively or positively. A comic’s goal is to persuade his or her audience to respond positively to a violation of personal space or any other previously set expectation
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  61. Rutter, Jason (1997). "Stand-up as interaction: Performance and Audience in Comedy Venues" (PDF). Department of Sociology. CORE. University of Salford: Institute for Social Research. p. 169. Retrieved 13 November 2020. The presence of audience greeting, like audience applause, is a remarkably stable feature of opening sequences. Almost invariably the first thing a performer does is greet the audience. Although this greeting may take a variety of forms, it is an introduction. Usually the performer's entrance has been preceded by a short sequence from a compere who will have introduced the comedian and instigated a round of applause. [An] informal, at times quasi-conversational approach is used in which the performer gives the impression that they are opening up a dialogue with the audience.
  62. Filani, Ibukun (2015). "Discourse types in stand-up comedy performances: an example of Nigerian stand-up comedy". Department of English. European Journal of Humour Research. 3 (1): 43–44. doi:10.7592/EJHR2015.3.1.filani. Retrieved 4 January 2021. Rutter (1997; 2000) cited in Scarpetta & Spagnolli (2009: 6) identify the following successive bits in British stand-up comedy: i. Introduction, in which the compere announces the comedian, evaluates him/her, and warms up the audience, whose responses to the compere accompany the entrance of the comedian on stage; ii. The comedian entrance, which overlaps with the audience applause. S/he starts with an opening in which s/he greets, comments, and trains the audience in the way to respond. These exchanges are used to orient the audience towards the nature of the routine and also to divert the audience attention from drinks and chats iii. The body of the show, which is made up of several joke-telling sequences iv. The closure, which is made up of a series of not necessarily funny utterances like the evaluation of the audience, a reintroduction of the comedian, and thanks that accompany her/his departure from the stage.
  63. Brodie, Ian (2014). "The Social Identity". A Vulgar Art: A New Approach to Stand-up Comedy. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. pp. 85–86. ISBN 978-1-62846-182-4. [The] emcee asks that the extant personal goodwill between him- or herself and the audience be extended to these more or less unknown comedians...Rutter identifies six 'turns' evident in the compere's talk: contextualization (giving background details), framing of response (directing the audience to greet the comedian with a certain attitude), evaluation of comedian (commenting on performance skills), request for action (typically applause), introduction (naming), and audience applause (466).
  64. Antoine, Katja (2016). "'Pushing the Edge' of Race and Gender Hegemonies through Stand-up Comedy: Performing Slavery as Anti-racist Critique". Etnofoor. Stichting Etnofoor. 28 (1): 41. JSTOR 43823941. Retrieved 14 September 2020. The first comic on stage carries the burden of 'building the energy in the room'. The comedians who follow in the line-up have to sustain it. Should someone fail at doing this and leave the audience 'cold', the next comic has to 'bring the energy back up'...Ideally [the comedians] arrive at a venue when the show starts in order to 'read' the audience. Reading the audience is a visual practice (What are the demographics?[)]…and an affective practice (How are they responding to the comic on stage?[)]…At the very least, comics will show up a few acts ahead of their own for that purpose. They have to know the energy of the room in order to work the crowd right.
  65. Gulman, Gary (26 March 2020). "Gary Gulman's Comedy Tips: The Complete Collection 366 bits of wisdom, advice, and encouragement from the stand-up veteran". Vulture: Devouring Culture. NEW YORK MEDIA LLC. Retrieved 14 September 2020. Tip No. 17: You’ve been killing every night. You’re not sure this is still a challenge. For the next few months, ask to go on first. It’s a great test of your act. The booker and host will love you for it.
  66. Tsang, Wai King; Wong, Matilda (2004). "Constructing a shared 'Hong Kong identity' in comic discourses". Discourse & Society. Sage Publications, Ltd. 15 (6): 777. doi:10.1177/0957926504046504. JSTOR 42888651. S2CID 145745392. Retrieved 16 September 2020. 'I,' 'my,' 'me' as the comedian versus 'you' as the audience directly engages the audience in a dialogue.
  67. Durham, Rob (2011). Don’t Wear Shorts on Stage: the stand-up guide to comedy. Middletown, DE. p. 20. ISBN 9781468004847. Open mic night really shouldn't have more than fifteen acts...[or] ninety minutes.
  68. Hannibal Buress (3 August 2018). Hannibal Buress: Advice for Comedians. The Atlantic. Event occurs at 3:12–3:22. Retrieved 10 September 2019. [M]ax, 30 people, 'cause that's the max people that should be at an open mic
  69. Gulman, Gary (26 March 2020). "Gary Gulman's Comedy Tips: The Complete Collection 366 bits of wisdom, advice, and encouragement from the stand-up veteran". Vulture: Devouring Culture. NEW YORK MEDIA LLC. Retrieved 14 September 2020. Tip No. 1: Record Every Set...Record every set. The hard part: Listen to it, and transcribe everything you want to say again...This is especially helpful early on in your career, when you’re trying to build time.
  70. Naessens, Edward David (2020). "Busting the Sad Clown Myth: From Cliché to Comic Stage Persona". In Oppliger, Patrice A.; Shouse, Eric (eds.). The Dark Side of Stand-up Comedy. United Kingdom: Springer Nature Switzerland AG: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 244. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-37214-9_11. ISBN 978-3-030-37213-2. He explained to me the importance of recording every gig.
  71. Kornelis, Chris (25 August 2020). "Stand-Up Comics Find It Isn't Funny Writing Without an Audience". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 25 December 2020. How does a comedian know if something is funny? The audience tells [the stand-up comedian through a call and response with laughter].
  72. Wuster, Tracy (2006). "Comedy Jokes: Steve Martin and the Limits of Stand-Up Comedy". Studies in American Humor. American Humor Studies Association (14): 25. JSTOR 42573700. Stand-up comedy is a unique form of performance in that the reaction of the audience is an integral part of the success or failure of each individual performance.
  73. Roberts, Rebecca Emlinger (2000). Tim Allen. "Standup Comedy and the Prerogative of Art". The Massachusetts Review. The Massachusetts Review, Inc. 41 (2): 158, 159. JSTOR 25091646. No laughter? Out then. Tim [Allen]'s willingness to change his act to suit his audience...The difference between Tim's censoring of material and a poet's censoring is elusive. Tim's goal is to make money, that's one of his desires, but not his primary motivating desire. His drive as a comedian is to make people laugh.
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  75. Lagatta, Eric (21 March 2019). "Budding, established comedians hone craft at open-mic nights". The Columbus Dispatch. GateHouse Media, LLC. Retrieved 25 March 2019. Any comic nearing the time limit would face a warning: Moore waving his cell-phone flashlight.
  76. Durham, Rob (2011). Don’t Wear Shorts on Stage: the stand-up guide to comedy. Middletown, DE. p. 21. ISBN 9781468004847. The light will normally be flashed when you have one minute left in your set.
  77. Ewing, Creig (25 July 2018). "The secret to comedy? Time… hard work". LEO Weekly. LEO Weekly. Retrieved 25 March 2019. Usually the host will shine a light to let the comedian know a minute is left. If you keep going, it’s called blowing the light, and it is a sin.
  78. Borns, Betsy (1987). Comic Lives: Inside the World of American Stand-up comedy. Simon & Schuster, Inc. p. 179. ISBN 0-671-62620-5. Staying onstage longer than their allotted time is, along with joke stealing, one of the most grievous offense a stand-up can commit.
  79. Neill, Geoffrey (22 December 2015). Hitting Your Funny Bone: Writing Stand-up Comedy, and Other Things That Make You Swear. San Bernardino, CA. p. Chapter 6. ISBN 9781515180661.
  80. Kelly-Clyne, Luke (20 September 2018). "I Want Out: How to Leave the Boring Job You Don't Like and Start Your Comedy Career". Vulture: Devouring Culture. NEW YORK MEDIA LLC. Retrieved 4 April 2020. In order to get stage time at [bringer shows]…you [have to] bring…5 to 15 friends, each of whom must show up and agree to buy at least two drinks…Some people think bringers are a scam, and they kind of are. They’re a cash grab for club owners
  81. Poets, Academy of American. "Read a poem at an open mic | Academy of American Poets". poets.org. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
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